Child care tax breaks needed

The government should provide full tax deductibility for childcare for working parents to ensure sustained improvement in gender equity in workplaces, a report says.

The report, by the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), also calls for companies to set a target for 40 per cent of executive roles to be filled by women and to report annually on their progress.

Organisations should also undertake annual gender pay audits and eliminate pay gaps based on gender and companies should sign the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles and report on progress to their stakeholders.

The report called for a national campaign to promote public awareness of the importance of more equity to the economy.

Westpac Banking Corp chief executive
Gail Kelly
, whose company has set targets, said more needed to be done.

The report, Equality Means Business, is a communiqué of a gender equity summit, held by the AHRI, Westpac and UN Women Australia in Sydney in March. The summit was attended by 182 people from a broad group of companies and government organisations.